


An Undercover Affair

by keysburg



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: A little angst, Daniel's pov again, F/M, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slice of Life, Undercover as Married, a little fluff, an agent's job is never done, i'm never writing another interrogation again I swear, ok its earned the graphic violence tag now, some action eventually, something for everyone - Freeform, spycraft is difficult, the war really messed everyone up and I can't leave it be, this is getting kind of violent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-26
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-01 10:06:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4015672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keysburg/pseuds/keysburg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“But this deep cover mission will still be difficult. You know I don’t have a problem using people’s expectations against them.  I’ve done it to you, even.  However, it is one thing to do that briefly, and it is another to live a life that’s more or less the antithesis of everything I am.  I am an agent, not a homemaker.  And it is hard to see this as anything but the SSR telling me to learn my place."</p><p>Written at the end of S1, now more of an AU: instead of Daniel going to LA, he and Peggy have to go undercover as a married couple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An agent's job is never done

“Sousa! Carter! Get coffee for four and meet me in the briefing room!’ Thompson was barking orders again. That was never good. Daniel grabbed his crutch and headed for the coffee pot, but Peggy stopped him with a hand on his arm. 

“I don’t mind, Daniel. I will get the coffee. Thompson’s got some sort of SSR bigwig in his office and it is probably just easier if we show him what he expects.” Daniel eyed her. She was probably doing it because he couldn’t really balance the tray with his crutch, but she would never let on. Grudgingly he nodded and headed for the briefing room. When Peggy came in with the tray, Jack was right behind her.

“Don’t undermine me in front of the SSR brass, Agents. It won’t end well for any of us.”

“Yes sir! Chief Thompson sir!” Peggy taunted him, but dropped the attitude and started pouring coffee when they were joined by the brass in question. He was an older man, in his late 60s or early 70s. He carried himself like a man in some degree of pain and trying hard not to let it show, but Daniel was familiar with the signs. His hair was very white, and his eyebrows comprised of abnormally long hair, overshadowing his long thin nose and pursed lips. For all that, there was an intelligent spark in his eyes. This man was a hawk. 

“Have you started, Jack?” the newcomer asked.

“Was waiting for you, sir. Agents, this is Douglas Danvers. He’s got a new mission for you both. As you know, since the war there has been continued communist and socialist activity within the states. Many of these groups are peaceful, but some of them seem to be aiming to destabilize our government. Washington has gotten wind of one such group and they are recruiting within VA hospitals.” Daniel started a bit at this revelation. Danvers nodded at him.

“They tend to focus on returning GIs who are still grappling with the war. Use their injuries and their trauma to manipulate them into turning against the government and joining their little group. Agent Sousa, you will be an invaluable asset in uncovering their ultimate goals. However, we’ve already lost two agents. One turned up dead and the other appears to have defected to them.”

“So we aren’t sending you in there alone.” Jack continued. “This time we send a team. Carter will join you undercover as your wife, who is angry at the condition her husband has been returned to her in.” Peggy glanced at him, surprised, but didn’t comment. Daniel couldn’t say he was sorry to have to pretend their relationship was more intimate. Despite the fact that Peggy seemed to return his interest, their jobs hadn’t left much time for their relationship to develop past that of colleagues and coworkers. Colleagues who flirted when they thought no one was listening, but colleagues just the same. 

“And I will be going as Agent Sousa’s elderly father.” Danvers picked up. They both turned to him. Daniel tried to keep the disappointment from his face.

“Not only will Lieutenant Danvers act as your handler on this mission, to provide additional back up, but he’ll also act as your chaperone. The three of you will be living together, and he’ll make sure you both stay focused and everything stays… above board.” Thompson had a little smirk on his face. 

“Is that really necessary?” Peggy asked. “We can check in regularly of course, but acting married while on mission hardly requires a chaperone. We will have to socialize together as a married couple, but it is not like we’ll be alone together often.”

“On the contrary, Agent Carter.” Danvers said. “We have to follow protocol 1879 on this one. I’ve left your covers with Chief Thompson here for you both to memorize. In three days I will meet you at our new residence… in Buffalo.”


	2. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

“Buffalo! Buffalo NY! Do you know what is in Buffalo, Daniel?” They were supposed to be quizzing each other on their new covers, but instead Peggy was pacing.

“Apparently a large VA hospital.” Daniel said. He watched her pace back and forth, stopping occasionally to stare out the window.

“And not much else!” Peggy turned from the window to Daniel. Her voice had risen and they were getting glances from the bullpen.

“I’m not sure why you’re so distraught, Peggy. This is an important mission, one that will require all our skill. We’ll be too busy trying to figure out who to get close to and working our way in to be worried about the lack of nightlife in Buffalo.” 

“It doesn’t feel like that to me, Daniel. It feels like we’re getting shuffled off to a backwater, where we’ll be out of the way and can’t cause any trouble. You know protocol 1879 requires deep cover, we’ll be living our covers 24-7. And my cover is housewife and VA volunteer. The very thing I joined the SSR to avoid!” 

“I understand, Peggy. I’m not exactly thrilled about my cover as clerk in the psychiatrist's office. I get enough filing here. And I wasn’t fond of the psychiatrist they made me visit at the VA here when I returned without my leg. It will, however, provide me with the opportunity to snoop through files and look for those with socialist leanings. Just like your cover will let you talk to the other women.” She didn’t look convinced, so Daniel continued. “I’m pretty sure this an important mission, too. I’ve been doing some background on Danvers. He’s a decorated SSR agent, and the only reason he hasn’t been given a command is because he refused to take one. Several times. Everyone who knows him says he’s still as sharp as ever, and I don’t think they would send someone like him off to Buffalo unless they needed results.” Peggy sighed, and collapsed in the chair at the end of the table.

“That makes me feel slightly better about having to live with the man for an indeterminate amount of time.” she said. “But this deep cover mission will still be difficult. You know I don’t have a problem using people’s expectations against them. I’ve done it to you, even. However, it is one thing to do that briefly, and it is another to live a life that’s more or less the antithesis of everything I am. I am an agent, not a homemaker. And it is hard to see this as anything but the SSR telling me to learn my place.” Daniel snorted at this.

“We both know you’re more than up to the challenge, Peg. But if it helps you can weave it into the cover. We’re expected to take what the SSR gives us and make it real, so why not make Peggy Winters have some ambition of her own?” He watched her mull this over.

“I suppose. I suppose I can play it like I chose to temper my ambition temporarily, to support Daniel Winters’ recovery. Since you’re playing a version of yourself, a version without the SSR mission to give you purpose. That man might need a wife who was willing to step back and let him show her that he could support them, regardless of his… condition.” She looked at him, eyes softening. “We’ve never talked about how you felt after. You usually brush it off with a joke. This will be difficult for you, too, I imagine.” Daniel started to stammer something, and she reached forward at took his hand. He froze, looking at her soft hand in his. “Come on, now, Daniel. We’ve got two days here to memorize our covers and make it look to the rest of the world like we’re married, comfortable with each other. It won’t do if you look like that every time I touch you. And if you tell me something of what it was like for you after, it will feel more natural for us to act intimate. Its the type of thing your wife should know.”

“You’re assuming Daniel Winters is the sharing type.” he said, even as he forced himself to relax, curling his fingers around hers, his eyes still on their hands. “Plenty of men never tell their wives how they feel. And you’re not good at sharing either, Peggy.”

“Yes, but I’m not being Peggy Carter right now. And I’m not talking to Agent Sousa. I’m talking to my dear husband Daniel. So try and tell your darling wife Peg what it was like.”

“I wouldn’t even know how to explain what it's like. In the army and before that I always had… a focus. After it was like everything had gone soft. I had plenty of time for reading in between exercise sessions, but I’d read a few pages and then my attention would drift. I can read a whole book in a day but it took me a month to get through one. Food was tasteless, even when the nurses would smuggle me in something good from outside the hospital. I did my exercises, I went to physical therapy, but it didn’t seem important. And then the offer came from the SSR and it was like… something snapped back into place.”

“You were depressed, lamby-pie.” Daniel started, head coming up to see her looking at him adoringly. Seeing his expression, she laughed. “Yeah, that was a bit much. But calling you plain old “honey” seems a bit flat to me.” She pursed her lips, thinking. “You were depressed, sweetheart. When we lost Steve, I felt much the same, but I also didn’t have the space to indulge it with the war still going on. When V-E day finally came and I got to go home on leave, I spent a week in bed. I had pushed it down so far that when it came back up, I didn’t eat for three days. Peggy Winters didn’t lose Daniel, but she certainly lost something. Probably the life she thought she would have. She will definitely still be pushing things down. She has to be there for her Daniel.”

“So Daniel Winters has his Peg to work for, and she has him to motivate her to keep it together. This is quite the romantic relationship we are concocting, here.”

“It’ll be easy for others to accept. Not everyone buries themselves in their work, or so Mr. Jarvis keeps trying to tell me. ‘Most people, Agent Carter, confide in a loved one when they have a problem.’ I think that’s one thing you and I both have in common, Daniel. We use this job to keep us going, now that the war has changed everything for us. And we use it as an excuse to hold people at arm’s length, or so Angie tells me every time I cancel on her for something.”

“I don’t do that.” Daniel protested. “Sure, we’re busy, but I still go back home for Sunday dinner every week. My sister Maria, she makes a mean lamb roast… what?” Peggy was eyeing him skeptically. 

“What were you doing last weekend, Daniel?”

“Oh, right, I was on stakeout with Ramirez until early Sunday morning. I ended up sleeping all afternoon.”

“And the week before that?”

“That was when Thompson pulled in that Russian that was suspected of counterfeiting paperwork for illegal immigrants. You know we were both here, in the interrogation room all day…” Daniel stopped. He went on, his voice softer. “And there was something else that came up the week before. It's been almost a month…”

“And we’re about to go undercover for an undetermined length of time. Were you going to go visit them tonight, or were you going to sit here all night learning your cover?”

“I thought I’d call, once we left the city.” Daniel flushed. He hadn’t really thought it out. He didn’t want to see the look on his father’s face when he told him about the undercover position. Papa understood why he had taken this job with the SSR, but he didn’t like it. And he worried… but they didn’t know how long they’d be gone for. Anything could happen while he was gone. With a start, Daniel realized just how good he had gotten at shutting out “what ifs” lately. It wasn’t that long ago that he had been plagued with constant fears about what could, or would have gone wrong. At some point he just started slamming a door on them, and concentrating on the present. It was an effective strategy, but he realized now it was hardly ideal. It was an excellent recipe for regrets. He looked at Peggy, still holding his hand. She gave it a little squeeze.

“And we’ve both let the job prevent us from acting on our feelings, Daniel.” His heart started to pound as she continued. “A quick kiss in the middle of a fraught situation or a little flirting in the file room is a poor excuse for what I think we both want.”

“And now we’re going undercover with Danvers.” Daniel agreed. “Who has already lectured me about the type of behavior he expects when we are not in public.”

“I got that lecture too.” Peggy said dryly. “ ‘We’ll be working closely undercover for months, Agent. Sometimes pretending to have feelings creates those feelings. And Agent Sousa is an attractive man. But we have a duty, etc., admissibility of evidence is the highest priority…”

“You deserve more too, Peggy. This mission will reach a certain level of intimacy even with Danvers there. But you should be courted. Because we both need the room to figure out if Daniel Sousa and Peggy Carter want to live for each other the way Daniel Winters and Peg Winters do. And not just rely on each other because the job requires it.” 

“I think we’re on the same page. Our feelings are useful for our covers, but whatever happens… we hit the reset button when the mission is over. And hopefully we can both stop using the job as an excuse.”

“Right after this long term undercover mission.” he said dryly. “I think we just talked ourselves into doing what we were already doing.” 

“Just for a little bit longer. Change is hard. Besides, you’ve got other relationships that should take priority right now.”

“Right.” Daniel sighed as he got to his feet. “I’ll go call home, tell them to expect me for dinner tonight.”


	3. Marriage is routine

Six weeks later, Daniel perked up when he heard Peggy’s heels clicking in the hall. On Wednesdays her volunteer group at the VA ran late, meaning he could ride home with her instead of with their neighbor, Tom. He quickly stuffed copies of this week’s intakes into his shoulder bag, glancing at the closed office door of Dr. Patone. He was in session with a patient, which was Daniel’s preferred time to duck out of the office when he had to cart intelligence home. He had just zipped up the bag and was reaching for his crutch when Peggy came through the doorway to the office suite where he worked. 

“Ready to go sweetheart?” she asked him, as she leaned over to plant a quick kiss on his lips. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling at her, but then, he didn’t need to. She had a fellow volunteer with her, explaining the affection. “Maggie needs a ride home, I told her we could drop her off.”

“I’m ready, darling. Hello, Maggie. Did you ladies manage to end your bake sale dilemma at the meeting today?” Daniel smiled at the other woman, a soft-spoken brunette. Maggie sighed and launched into a diatribe as they walked down the hall, the women pacing themselves for him. Daniel caught Peggy rolling her eyes when Maggie got to the part about how many chocolate desserts were “enough” and he had to cough to hide his burbling laughter. 

When they were finally alone in the car, Peggy sighed. “You didn’t tell me how many chocolate items you thought would be sufficient, darling.” Daniel teased. She side-eyed him from the driver’s seat and then carefully pulled back onto the street.

“I know it’s important for us both to engage with people at the hospital, but I could have throttled you for asking her that. We had discussed it for two hours already! You should distract me by telling me how much work we have tonight.”

“About 200 new pages.” Daniel replied. “Ten new intakes, plus updates on 10 subjects already flagged. We should get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.” he grimaced. “Which is good because we have dinner at Dr. Patone’s on Friday night and I think you said something about a garden party on Saturday?”

“Yes, it's at Claire and Bobby’s and it’s actually a birthday party for their two year old. It sounds dreadful but since Bobby is on our priority list I didn’t feel like we could avoid it. Plus a party like that will provide an excellent chance to look around. Oh, by the way, dear, before I forget, we had a miscarriage.”

“We did, huh?” Daniel asked dryly. “When did that happen?”

“Just a couple months after you got back from the war. Claire asked if we were thinking about kids and I thought a sad story might soften Susan up. She still doesn’t like me, but Maggie told me she had lost two pregnancies, so. We had a miscarriage and we’re too traumatized yet to try again.”

“Which one is Susan, again?” 

“Susan Spears, the brunette who is married to Matthew. Matthew is the one who was a prisoner of a POW camp in Germany and lost several fingers and toes to frostbite? They’re not on the priority list but they’re on the potential list.” Daniel nodded.

“Matthew had an interesting session with Dr. Patone this week. That’s in tonight’s reading. Peggy, do you ever feel… troubled by all this lying we have to do? Normally I think our missions involve lying to criminals and such… but these people have done nothing wrong.”

“We don’t know if they’ve done anything wrong. Yet. After I told the story of our baby girl - yeah, it was a girl, and I don’t think I made up anything else - and saw the looks on the other women’s faces… yeah, I felt wretched. But Daniel, whoever is manipulating these people into working against U.S. interests… they’re the ones hurting people. We’re just trying to correct it. I did hope the list of suspects transmitted to Washington would produce more solid leads by now. Particularly since Agent Harris died shortly after sending it… he must have been close. ” She fell silent and Daniel rolled that around in his head for a bit. It was a hard line of logic to argue against, and above all he did believe in the SSR mission. Even if sometimes they ran into uncomfortable situations…

“So that leaves us tomorrow night for sparring practice.” Peggy was saying. Daniel winced. He liked sparring practice, and he liked that Peggy never pulled her punches with him, but it had gotten significantly less enjoyable since Danvers had come home early from his Tuesday night poker game at the VFW (another potential recruitment target) to find the furniture pushed back and him pinning Peggy to the floor with his crutch. Peggy had suggested the twice weekly sessions (during the poker game and on Sundays when Danvers went to “church” -also known as reporting to Washington) when they arrived in Buffalo. He leapt at the chance to work on his hand-to-hand. Peggy was an ideal training partner for him, skilled and patient, without being condescending. Plus it had been their little bonding time, a way to work out the frustrations of undercover work without worrying that their behavior would make it into a report to Washington. Until Danvers discovered them. Daniel understood what it had looked like, with him kneeling over Peggy, his crutch against her throat, and both of them sweating and out of breath. But he didn’t enjoy the fist to the jaw he received because of it, or that Danvers now participated in or supervised all their sessions. Peggy still wanted to have a one-on-one session when Danvers was out, but it had been made quite clear what it would mean for their careers if they were caught disobeying his order to only train when their chaperone was present. Daniel spent most Tuesday nights at the community pool instead, working on his conditioning. 

“You get to take Danvers first this time.” Daniel replied. “I’m tired of him beating up on me and then you doing it.” Peggy smiled at him as she pulled into the driveway of their little house. 

“Okay, Agent Sousa. But we both know it’s made you a better a fighter, even in a couple weeks.” They went into the house, where Danvers was parsing leftovers from last night’s lasagna - Daniel’s speciality - onto plates for each of them. Daniel unpacked his smuggled paperwork and distributed it, and they all fell to reading and eating without further comment.

Three hours later, Peggy looked up and rubbed her eyes. “Bobby’s outburst this week means he should remain on the priority list for now. Matthew Spears reports he’s self isolating, which makes him vulnerable to approach. I think the Spears should get moved up to priority listing.”

“We have too many on the priority list now.” Danvers grumbled. “Haven’t you guys been able to clear anyone yet?”

“I think we can downlist the Zoladzes.” Daniel said. “According to the file, John is adjusting well. Not suspiciously well, just well. He’s gone back to coaching for his son’s baseball team and other pre-war activities. I can take point on Spears too. He’s been moved up to twice weekly sessions, and I booked him at the end of the day. It should be easy to get him to go out for a drink with me.”

“And I think this weekend will help us move forward with both Dr. Patone and Bobby. We’re getting access to both their houses and will be in congenial atmosphere. Fingers crossed we get lucky and one of them tries to recruit us.” Peggy said.

“Well, we knew this mission would be an uphill battle. Investigating the people we’d recruit for such an organization is a very indirect tactic, but we’re stuck with it unless someone does try to bring you in.” Danvers said. “Get some rest. You are both going to need to be very alert this weekend.”


	4. Dinner parties are friendly interrogations

Late Friday afternoon, Peggy pulled the car up in front of Dr. Patone’s house. Geoffrey, Daniel reminded himself. He didn’t have to call his boss by his title outside of the office. Peggy glanced at him, and gave him the faint grimace that signaled “Once more into the breech.” It made him smile, which was why she did it. She schooled her own face into a smile and gave Daniel plenty of time to get himself out of the passenger seat and around the car while she fussed getting the cake out of the back. 

Mrs. Patone, Dorothy, answered the door and practically seized the cake from Peggy, taking it into the kitchen and bustling back as Geoffrey came out of the den. She was excited to see them and very chatty and immediately invited them on a tour. 

“Why don’t you girls go ahead?” Daniel said. “I’m a bit sore.” Peggy responded to this by pinching the back of his arm where she had laid her hand. Outwardly she looked at him, concern on her face. 

“Yes, Dot, why don’t you take Peggy around? Show her the garden and everything. Daniel and I will have a drink.” Geoffrey beckoned him into the den, which contained a leather sofa that Daniel availed himself of immediately, sighing a little as he sat down.

“Does your prosthetic bother you much?” Geoffrey asked him, pouring scotch into two glasses. Daniel gratefully accepted the drink. 

“At this point, there’s always a little discomfort, but mostly in the background. But it builds and by the end of the week I’m always looking for ways to get off my feet.” Daniel replied. Although in this case he was sore because yesterday Peggy had managed a nifty sweep during their sparring match. It had stolen his balance so fast he hadn’t had time to roll into the fall. He had landed hard on his good hip. 

“That sounds exhausting.” Geoffrey observed.

“It is. Sometimes.” Daniel said. “I just wish…”

“What do you wish, Daniel?” Geoffrey asked, leaning in. 

“That I could be the man Peg deserves. Failing that… that I could do something to prevent another man from feeling the way I do, ever again. To prevent good men from being chewed up, and spit out by war.” 

“What do you imagine you could do to make that happen?” Geoffrey asked. 

“I don’t know. But if I knew what I could do, I wouldn’t hesitate.” Daniel tried not to hold his breath, or to look at Dr. Patone. He stared at the floor, and sipped scotch.

“Would you say you spend an outsized amount of time thinking about this, Daniel? About what you could do differently, about your responsibility? “ Oh god, Dr. Patone was trying to shrink him. This is not the way Daniel hoped the conversation would go.

Three hours later they finally made their escape, Peggy shooting Daniel a look over the top of the car that he knew signaled her frustration. He tried to tease her on the way home.

“How was the garden, Peg dear? Did you get any ideas for ours?” She shot him a deathly glare, and returned her eyes to the road. “That Dot is a lovely woman. I do hope you take up her invite to the quilting circle. I could use a new bedspread.” Peggy began to mutter under her breath, something about firearms and no one ever finding his body. “We’ll have to have them over, so we can determine once and for all who makes the worst chicken ever.” At this Peggy chuckled, and then glanced at him.

“I burned one dinner. One. I have a feeling Dot has been burning them almost nightly for years.”

“You haven’t redeemed yourself yet either.” said Daniel. “It wouldn’t be half bad if you paid attention. Instead of getting distracted, you should actually put some time and attention into it. You know chemistry Peggy, I know a tender cake isn’t beyond you either.”

“It's quicker and easier if you make it though.” said Peggy. “That’s why we make such a good team. You bake the cake, and I take all the compliments with humility and grace.” Daniel snorted.

“It’s easy to be humble when you haven’t done a damn thing. One of these nights I’m going to leave you and Danvers to your own devices for dinner, and we’ll see if you both survive.”

“I’m a let down as a wife, I get it.” Peggy teased. “I did warn you, however.” She pulled the car into the drive.

“Yes, but when the SSR recruited me, they neglected to mention the culinary dangers of the job.”

Inside, Danvers was waiting to debrief them. It was a conversation that could have waited until morning, but Peggy obviously wanted to get it off her chest.

“Nothing. Bloody waste of time.” she said. Danvers looked at Daniel.

“I set him up pretty well again.” said Daniel. “If he’s supposed to recruit people, he’s not doing a very good job. I never really liked him for it.”

“It is possible someone is bugging his office.” Danvers mused. “We might have to get in there to search. Ah well, good night kids. Another big day tomorrow.”

As always, Danvers said goodnight and waited until they were both tucked in their separate rooms before going to bed himself. Daniel was growing tired of this living arrangement. He would like to be able to speak freely to Peggy other than in the car. He would like to decide when he went to bed, not be forced into his room almost every night by Danver’s disapproval. He sighed, knowing that concentrating on the mission was the only way to improve things. So as he prepared for bed, he thought about what he should say to Bobby tomorrow, and how to get Matthew to open up. 

He took off his suit and hung it up, thinking about what a jock Bobby was. The man had lost his left hand in Japan, but it hadn’t stopped his enthusiasm for playing or talking about sports. It had just made him short-tempered and given him something to prove. At one time, Daniel could have gotten along with Bobby very well, they could have played tennis and he would have laughed at Bobby’s risque jokes at a bar afterward. But their injuries had changed them in different ways. Daniel had chosen to develop his mind, not to make up for the loss of his leg so much but to focus on the talents he was still lucky to have. Bobby had refused to adapt and instead had developed a pigheaded insistence for pretending his injury made no difference at all. Daniel wondered if it was easier to do that when you were only missing your non-dominant hand, and if he would have reacted the same way, if his injury had been different. 

Sitting on the bed, he unstrapped his prosthetic with a sigh, leaning it against the nightstand. He peeled the gauze sock from his stump, and wiped down the end of his leg with a damp washcloth. He hadn’t been lying to Dr. Patone, he was mostly used to it by now, but it always felt good to remove the prosthesis at the end of the night and let the skin breathe. It was another thing he missed about living alone; at home he could take it right after work if he felt like it. Here he felt like Danvers would judge such a thing as a weakness, even if he was okay with Peggy seeing him lurch around without it. He shut off the light and wriggled beneath the covers, still thinking about Bobby. He should just talk to him like he used to talk to his school chums. His file said he was a Cardinals man, maybe Daniel would just get him started talking about their World Series victory this year and that would take care of it… he drifted off to sleep, trying to remember what had happened during those games.


	5. A day so sunny should not feel so grim

By early afternoon the next day he was drinking a beer. He was seated with several other men, close to the grill Bobby was stubbornly manning one-handed. Daniel knew better than to offer his help. On the far side of the yard, children screeched in laughter and he looked over, seeing Bobby’s wife Claire running some sort of game with them. His breath caught a little as he saw Peggy laughing at the children. He caught her eye and then touched his tongue to the left side of his top lip, their signal for “mind your cover.” She saw it, and let her face grow more solemn, drifting away from the kids and wrapping her arms around herself as she went to sit down by Susan. 

“I still don’t know how a guy like you landed a woman like that.” said Bobby, startling Daniel. Well, it was okay to be caught staring at his “wife.” He didn’t appreciate the comment.

“I guess it's just a good thing I fooled her into marrying me before I was deployed.” said Daniel. “Even smart women can be talked into dumb things when there’s a war on.” He had been aiming for dry but ended up sounding more bitter. He went with it. “Probably never would have had a chance at it after I came back without my leg.”

“Oh come on man,” said Donald, Bobby’s brother. “Anyone can tell that Peggy thinks you hung the moon. She spends as much time staring at you as you do at her.” 

“I don’t know if that’s affection so much as concern.” It was because they were quickly developing shorthand non-verbal communication, but Daniel couldn’t tell them that. He kept the bitter tone in his voice. Bobby was giving him an appraising look. “I love her to death but the damn woman treats me like I’m made out of glass. She fusses over me constantly, telling me to rest, and trying to make unnecessary accommodations.”

“You should get her knocked up.” suggested Bobby, with a lascivious wink. “Give her a child to fuss over, it’s worked great to keep Claire busy.” Daniel winced, now having to pick up Peggy’s distasteful cover story.

“Well, we did try, but… um…” he trailed off, looking at the ground and then up to catch Matthew Spears’ eye. The man looked sympathetic but said nothing.

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re in the same boat as Matthew over there!” Bobby said. “You’re the man in the relationship, I hope. Don’t let her freeze up on you!” Matthew rolled his eyes at this.

“No, it’s just, we were both so excited and then when… we lost the baby, we thought it would be better to wait to try again. And then there was the move up here, and we’re still getting settled…” Daniel looked for Peggy again, but it looked like her attempt to talk to Susan was unsuccessful. Susan was walking toward the men, trying to get Matthew’s attention. Matthew was ignoring her, until she got up to them. 

“I hate to break up the party, boys.” said Susan. Daniel heard Matthew mutter something under his breath that sounded like “No, you don’t.” “But I’m afraid I am not feeling well.”

“Susan,” Bobby chided. “You’re going to make the others think you don’t like them.”

“Well, they should all be as charming as you.” said Susan. Daniel watched Matthew, but he didn’t react to this. It was baffling to Daniel. Bobby really did seem to be the only person Susan could tolerate, including her own husband. They continued to flirt like the rest of them weren’t there. 

“That much charm could be dangerous.” Bobby was saying. Matthew finished his beer and stood up. 

“Let’s go then, dear.” Matthew said, not even looking at Susan. “You know how much worse your migraines get if you don’t lie down promptly.” They departed. Bobby started taking hamburgers and hot dogs off the grill, and Donald assembled them with buns and piled them on a tray. Most of these he took over to the kids, leaving Bobby and Daniel alone as Bobby added more meat to the grill for the adults. Daniel cast about for a new conversation topic, but it was actually Bobby that spoke first.

“When I first got back, Claire did to me what Peggy does to you. Followed me around like I was helpless. It's not right, you know. We got chewed up and spit up and sent back home less than what we were, and everyone knows it. For the rest of our lives, people will treat us with pity, because of how we’ve been used.”

“I thought you volunteered for service?” Daniel asked, trying to keep Bobby talking. 

“I did. I thought I was doing my part. I also thought that our leaders knew right from wrong, but from what I saw, I’m not sure it’s possible to do right in a war.” He looked at Daniel, as if seeking agreement. It was easy enough to give it to that sentiment, but Daniel had never heard Bobby speak like this before. He wouldn’t have thought that this man gave much thought to right or wrong, and he started to wonder if someone had been feeding him lines. 

“But history teaches us war is inevitable.” said Daniel. “As long as someone holds themselves above others and acquires power and influence.”

“The U.S. has power above any other country in the world, now that we’ve developed the A-bomb. How long do you think it will be before our leaders start holding themselves above others?” Bobby asked. Daniel mulled that over, looking at the ground. He wanted to say they only did that because they were provoked. That the A-bomb didn’t start the war, only finished it. That the sailors in the watery grave of the sunken USS Arizona had been honored by every sacrifice made after they came to rest at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. He still thought it was worth it, even as his leg started registering phantom tingles that he could swear started below the amputation. He rubbed at his leg where the stump met his prosthetic, and although he didn’t truly believe it was inevitable that the U.S would use the terrible destructive power again, he wanted to keep Bobby talking.

“If.. if that happened, millions of people might die. And millions more would know what we faced in combat.” He looked up to see Bobby watching him carefully. “No one deserves that.” Bobby gave him a grim little smile, and started to speak -

And he was interrupted by Donald, who wanted a well done burger with cheese, already.

Somehow, the rest of that party was even more dreadful than that conversation, or watching Susan and Bobby flirt. It was something about the performative aspect of birthdays that bothered Daniel. Bobby and Claire’s daughter, Jean, seemed overwhelmed by all the attention and refused to blow out her candles and spent most of the afternoon burying her face in Claire’s shoulder. Claire kept trying to get her to engage, to talk back to the family members pushing presents Jean’s way, or to play with the other children. 

He wasn’t able to get Bobby alone to finish their conversation, since Bobby’s brother-in-law or father-in-law were always nearby, talking about sports or asking Bobby about his next home improvement project. Daniel felt like they had been really close to… something. But he had to admit defeat as the smaller children started to get tired, fussing loudly. Peggy came up and tucked herself under his right arm, wrapping her left arm around his waist. He let her take just a little bit of his weight as they moved around the yard, saying goodbye to different people and thanking their hosts. Bobby caught his eye then, and Daniel cut his eyes to Peggy under his arm and then rolled them. He was rewarded with that same grim little smile. 

Back at the house, both Peggy and Danvers were skeptical that Bobby was going to be their in.

“Bobby Wade is a child.” Peggy said. “An overgrown child. He started pouting when Claire started talking to you about the VA. I thought he was going to throw a temper tantrum. No organization worth their salt would let him recruit anyone. And I’d swear Claire doesn’t know anything.”

“He’d be easy to manipulate.” Daniel tried to explain. “He’s never said anything like what he said to me. I agree he’s not leadership material or anything, but what if he took this upon himself?”

“We’ve had a hard time getting any information on these people. I think they are too organized to let a lunkhead like Bobby get ideas.” Danvers said. 

“Everyone makes a mistake sometime.” Daniel said. “This could be theirs.”

“That’s not a good enough reason to focus on him.” said Danvers. “He could be a just a paranoid fool who wants someone to discuss his conspiracy theories with him.”

“There’s been no sign of that in his file.” said Daniel. “It says he is angry, stubborn, and refuses to adjust, but it doesn’t say anything about paranoid.”

“Even if you’re right, it makes sense to continue working multiple angles. Plus, you don’t want to seem to eager. Let it sit for a few days, and try to get to Spears while you wait.” Danvers said.

“It’s something to pick at.” Peggy said. “More than I’ve found, that’s for sure. You have good instincts, Daniel. What do you think will happen if you rush it?” Daniel nodded. He didn’t want to push it too fast. If Bobby was a member, he might spook him. If he wasn’t, and Daniel started leaning too hard into anti-American rhetoric, the man might report him for suspicious behavior. 

“We’re all frustrated by our lack of progress.” Danvers said. “I know I’m sick of the windbags at the VFW. But this is why we had to go protocol 1879. There is someone here, someone on our list, and we will figure out who it is.”


	6. Sleepin' city sidewalks

As usual on Sunday, Danvers went out to follow protocols and transmit the week’s findings to Washington. He’d be gone most of the day, taking buses back and forth across the city to where ever he actually made contact. Also as usual on Sunday, Daniel started cooking while Peggy did their laundry, and then read a book or wrote letters. He had been deeply uncomfortable with the idea of Peggy doing his laundry at first. He never would have asked her to do it, even if it didn’t mean handling his boxers and worse, the gauze socks he wore over his stump. She had insisted, since the burden of cooking had fallen entirely to him. She treated it with the same practicality she did everything, including the shopping and the dusting. Danvers, despite being a life-long bachelor, was very tidy. He cleaned the bathrooms, did the floors and did his own laundry. Peggy’s ironing apparently hadn’t been up to snuff for the man. 

Now weeks into the routine, it had started to become comforting. With Danvers out, he could almost imagine that he and Peggy were really married as he fell into the rhythm of the kitchen. Yesterday had probably been the last gasp of Indian summer and distinct chill was in the air, so he started a batch of his mother’s feijoada. He pulled some of the chouriço he brought up from the city out of the freezer to defrost. Meanwhile he perched on a tall stool and chopped tomatoes, cabbage, carrots and parsnips. He chopped extra root vegetables and potatoes and got them roasting while he seasoned and trussed a chicken for their late afternoon dinner. When the feijoada was full of white beans, veggies, chunks of pork and sausage bubbling gently, he put the chicken into the oven with the veggies, humming with satisfaction. He hadn’t cooked much back in the city, living alone. There hadn’t seemed much point in preparing meals just for himself. This part of the undercover assignment he didn’t mind at all. 

That done, he turned to sit down at the table and take a break and saw Peggy was watching him instead of working on the letter in front of her. 

“What’s up, Peggy?” he asked, sitting across the table from her. 

“Oh, just thinking. You have Matthew to work on this week, I need to figure out how to best to be productive. I had no luck with Susan yesterday. I think she personally dislikes me for some reason. Do you have any ideas on how I might get her to warm up to me?” Daniel winced at this. 

“I don’t know if it’s possible, Peggy. As delightful as you are, sometimes people just don’t jive. That woman is one of the coldest people I’ve ever met. The only person I know she likes is Bobby, and I don’t understand why.”

“That may be less of a mystery than you think.” Peggy said. “Bobby’s a heel, but he’s a good looking man. Maybe you should take point on Susan, flirt with her a little.” 

“I’ve got point on enough people, including Matthew.” He pointed out. “Difficult to cozy up to a man and his wife at the same time. Besides, I think we’ve sold our relationship too well. I get the idea she’s a pretty suspicious person anyway, she probably wouldn’t believe it if I came on to her.” Peggy made a frustrated sound in her throat.

“The only woman in the group she really speaks to is Maggie. I’m pretty sure Maggie is as guileless as the day is long. Approaching that way that might work, but it is terribly indirect and might end up being a waste of time.”

“Maybe I can get to her via Bobby.” Daniel said. “Let’s both work the indirect angle and see where it goes.” 

“Hmm. Susan via Maggie. I’m going to keep picking at Claire too. I don’t think she’s involved but she seemed frustrated with Bobby yesterday. If he is a member of… what are we calling them anyway? Peggy asked.

“Danvers’ file from the original agent refers to them as Drakon Rouge.” Peggy rolled her eyes at this.

“Red Serpent or Dragon? That’s even more dramatic than ‘Leviathan’. If Bobby is a member of Drakon Rouge, Claire might know something. I have a hard time believing most of the women are involved in anything. I’m going to start asking them if their husbands have been spending unusual amounts of time away from home. You might develop a strange hobby. And if that doesn’t work, it’s going to be time for less indirect maneuvers. I might just start trailing Susan.” 

“Danvers won’t like that.” Daniel observed. He wouldn’t like it either. 

“He doesn’t like the fact that we haven’t cleared more than a couple names off the suspect list, either. He’ll just have to admit we need a more proactive approach.” Peggy went back to her letters, and Daniel started to assemble a casserole for later in the week. Danvers was back when the chicken came out of the oven about three hours later, and the three of them sat down to a nice dinner with a bottle of wine Danvers had picked up while he was out. It wasn’t his sister’s lamb, but it was good all the same. 

Daniel didn’t have many expectations for Monday, other than the normal dull typing and filing and talking to Matthew Spears after his appointment. He was making good progress on the typing when one of Dr. Patone’s patients started acting out. The man grew more and more agitated, and when they were unable to calm him down, he started throwing things. It got worse from there and eventually the whole scene ended with Daniel pinning him to the ground and Dr. Patone administering a sedative. The VA only had the outpatient office for psychology patients, and Dr. Patone ended up traveling with his patient to get him settled in the county inpatient facility. Daniel spent a good chunk of time cancelling the rest of the appointments for the day, saving Matthew for last. 

“Hello Matthew, this is Daniel from Dr. Patone’s office. I’m afraid we have to cancel your appointment this afternoon.”

“Oh. Well. Thanks for calling, Daniel. Is everything okay?”

“Yes, we just had a patient emergency that had to be dealt with off-site, so we’re just closing the office early today. Actually, I’m at loose ends for the afternoon. Since you’re free as well, would you like to get a drink?” There was a long pause.

“I- yeah, okay. Can you meet me at Anchor bar in 45 minutes?" Matthew sounded hesitant but at least he had agreed. Daniel replied affirmatively and rang off before Matthew could change his mind. 

By the time the cab he called arrived and Daniel got downtown, Matthew was already there, sitting in a small booth towards the back, in a near-empty bar on a Monday afternoon. He had already finished one drink as well and ordered a second Manhattan when the waitress came by for Daniel's order. Daniel got one as well. 

"I was sorry you and Susan had to leave early this weekend." Daniel said. "Is she feeling better?"

"As well as she ever is, I suppose." Matthew said. "I think all the kids were just a bit much for her. Did I miss any more valuable marriage advice from Bobby?" Daniel laughed.

"No, we dropped the matter after you left. I think he felt less of a need to establish his dominance when it was just me and Claire's family."

"'Establish dominance' eh? It that some psych term you've picked up?" Matthew's voice picked up a little edge. 

"Oh, no. That's just how I think of it. Like pigeons, you know? The bigger ones pick on the smaller ones, keep them in line so they can get more food. You can tell who is in charge if you watch them for a few minutes. Bobby's the type of guy that sees all of life as a competition."

"I'm not sure what he thinks we're competing over." Matthew muttered. "Even my wife..." He turned red and looked up at Daniel. "You clerk for Dr. Patone. You type his notes, file everything? You must know everything about people's lives, everything they share, anyway?"

"Oh. Yes, I type his notes. But all the files are coded. There's no names on them, and he gives me the previous week's worth of notes to start typing on Friday. He sees about 20 people a week, has maybe 50 or 60 patients total at any one time. So I have no idea who said what, only a general sense of the pattern overall. And even then, most of it is in clinical terms I don't understand. Dr. Patone is quite serious about privacy concerns, not to worry." This was all true, although he was omitting how Peggy cracked Dr. Patone's code in two minutes flat, or the dictionary of terms they used when reviewing the records. "All of them are quite boring, to be honest. Everyone has the same struggles, the only difference is if people focus on what they saw overseas or what happened after they returned." Daniel sipped at his Manhattan and watched Matthew. He was staring into his drink. Bobby reminded him of a drunk veteran he had once tried to interrogate, only to be shown up by Thompson. But Matthew, he was probably more like Daniel. “Most Joes, they seem relieved when they come in to talk to Dr. Patone. Glad to have someone to unload on. Me, personally, I never liked talking to the doctor.”

“You saw a psychologist?” Matthew asked. 

“It’s common after an injury like mine.” Daniel confirmed. “It just didn’t work for me, talking to a stranger. It makes it easier for some people. It can be hard to talk to people you’re close to about the war. You see yourself changing in their eyes. It ruins the illusion that you’re still the same person you were before you left.”

“I don’t think I ever had that illusion. But I know what you mean, it’s nice to let others believe you’re still who you were. What did you end up doing?”

“I told him what he wanted to hear, so I could get out of there. Eventually… eventually I told Peggy. It became more important to me that she knew who I was now, than to keep the illusion that I might be the man she married.”

“It seems to have worked out okay. When you’re in the same room, you both light up.” Daniel cursed his feelings for Peggy in that moment. Their cover relationship was supposed to be motivation for recruitment, not a shield against it.

“Things… have been good since we moved. It was a fresh start for both of us. But it hasn’t been easy. It helped that she lost people in the war too. Worked in the hospital and saw the cost first hand. Talking to someone with similar experience was the most helpful, for me.” He stopped talking then, finished his drink. He tried to be patient while the waitress brought him a refill. This wasn’t an interrogation in the SSR office; he had no leverage here. Either Matthew would open up to him, or he wouldn’t.

“I’m not even sure Susan would listen, if I tried to talk to her now.” he stared, hesitatingly. 

“Why do you say that?” Leading questions. Daniel was picking something up from Dr. Patone’s notes.

“She’s just- she’s never home. Always at some club or another. Tonight she’s going to be at the Ladies’ Auxiliary at the VFW, and tomorrow she said something about the VA volunteer’s bake sale.” Daniel started at this, but tried to cover it. The bake sale was not until Thursday, which he knew because Peggy had promised an Angel’s food cake - which Daniel would have to make - and they didn’t have a meeting on Tuesday. 

“And girls need something of their own to keep them busy. Can’t expect them to stay home all the time. I understand, Peggy’s always off doing this or that. I think she’d go back to work full time if the VA had something for her.” Daniel said, sighing. He was really thinking about how much Peggy wanted to go back to the city. “She’s been very supportive of us moving up here, although it wasn’t her first choice.”

“Was it yours though? I mean…” Matthew turned red, clearly not wanting to imply anything regarding Daniel’s injury. 

“Well. There were a couple other potential jobs… but even though I’m not really sure about psychology, I did like the idea of doing something where I was helping, even in some small way. Makes the dullness of a desk job worth it to me. So I did want to work for the VA.” 

“I just wanted something normal. Susan really wanted me to stay on with the army when I got home.” Matthew said. “Make a career out of it. She said something about wars being prevented by military men who knew the cost of fighting. I was fairly high ranked, I had some dangerous missions that were successful. Until one wasn’t, and I was captured. I think she actually fell in love not with me, but an idea. A man who could do these dangerous things, and survive unscathed. If that man exists, I’m not him.”

“Even Captain America didn’t survive.” Daniel said. “Not sure us regular guys had a chance.”

“Yeah, well, its like you said. Easy to talk smart women into dumb stuff when a war is on.” Matthew was finishing his second drink already, waving over the waitress for another. Daniel took pity on him, as it seemed unlikely he knew anything.

“Hey, do you want to join me for dinner tomorrow? Peggy’s got a casserole in the freezer, and I usually to go the pool afterwards. But some exercise might do you good.”

“You swim?” Matthew asked.

“Yeah. I used to enjoy running but then my leg... But in the water, it almost doesn’t matter.” The conversation turned to less fraught topics, and Daniel managed to get some food into Matthew before getting him a cab home.


	7. Spycraft is better left to the professionals

Tuesday went by in a flash. Daniel tried to catch up on the typing he ditched to spend time with Matthew. Fortunately, Matthew was kind enough to give him a ride home. They ate his casserole alone, Danvers at his poker game and Peggy visiting with Maggie. Matthew had no further information for him regarding Susan’s plans this week. Daniel knew she wasn’t with the VA volunteers planning a bake sale that night, but it still seemed more likely she and Bobby were in a hotel somewhere than doing anything nefarious.

When he got back from the pool, Peggy was excited.

“Bobby called for you!” she announced, before he was barely through the door. “He wanted to know if you were free for beers tomorrow, and I said yes, since we’ll be working through the final touches for the bake sale.”

“The bake sale that you promised my Angel’s Food cake for. I was going to bake it tomorrow afternoon.” Daniel reminded her.

“I’ll do it, and I’ll make it the focus of my utmost concentration.” she said, rolling her eyes. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll buy something at the store and dump it on a plate. He’s going to pick you up at the hospital tomorrow, he said he’ll meet you in the north parking lot at 4:30.”

“If you’re sure you’re not going to burn the house down.” Daniel teased. “How did things go with Maggie today?” Peggy made a frustrated sound. 

“She had no idea what Susan was up to today. She’s teaching me to knit. Apparently she and Susan are in the same knitting group, but the next meeting isn’t for over a week.”

“Peggy.” Daniel said. “You already know how to knit.” 

“Yes, but Maggie doesn’t know that. Besides, I find it so bloody boring, it’s easy to drift off and mess it up.”

Daniel tried not to think about Peggy potentially destroying his kitchen as he limped toward the north entrance the next day. As promised, Bobby was waiting for him. In the car, they made small talk about baseball as Daniel watched Bobby drive. He seemed distinctly uneasy despite the casual talk, and Daniel was pretty sure he was spending a lot of time observing cars in the rearview mirrors and taking a lot of unnecessary turns, particularly since they just ended up back at the Wade house. 

They settled in the den, beers in hand and the radio on. 

“Where is Jean today?” Daniel asked, knowing Claire was at the VA hospital, with the other ladies. 

“With her grandmother. Claire’s mom takes her whenever Claire’s off with one of her little groups. She’s doing her baking over there tonight too, thank God. I’ll be glad when this blasted bake sale is over though.” Daniel laughed, thinking about how Peggy had been echoing that sentiment.

“I’ve been on military raids planned with less precision.” he said. “Sometimes I think we could have won the war sooner if we had more women enlisted.”

“You’re probably right about that.” Bobby said, and took a long pause. “So, you type Dr. Patone’s notes, huh? Know all sorts of juicy information about everyone?” 

“That’s the second time this week I’ve been asked that!” Daniel told Bobby what he had told Matthew. Maybe it hadn’t been the best move on the SSR’s part to have him retrieve information and try to use it. Maybe this mission would move a little faster if there was more compartmentalization. He’d be sure to put it into his report. Bobby seemed disappointed to hear about the care Dr. Patone took to secure his files. 

“But, how easy would it be to find the key used to code the files?” he asked Daniel. It was hard not to fidget as he responded.

“Hm. I haven’t thought about it, really. Why do you want to know?”

“I just think that Dr. Patone’s other patients might have a lot in common with you and me.” 

“Like our...” Daniel gestured at his leg. “I haven’t noticed any others.”

“Not other amputees, necessarily. Just other men who didn’t like being used. Who might want to do something about it.”

“Do something like what?” Daniel asked, skeptically. 

“Like we were talking about the other day… something to prevent those in charge from holding themselves above others.”

“To prevent people from misusing the A-bomb? I agree it would be terrible, but does it seem very likely? The news keeps reporting Truman’s commitment to preventing minority leaders from overruling the majority. Britain is running out of money and it’s looking more and and more like we’re going to get dragged into that mess in Greece, but that’s an internal conflict. He hardly seems like the type to use nuclear warfare as anything but a last resort.” 

“Maybe Truman wouldn’t, but he won’t be president forever. And what if we do get dragged into that Greek business? Should American men have to go over there and suffer our fate for their internal politics? That hardly seems fair.”

“You really think there’s something you can do about any of that?” Daniel asked, careful to seem skeptical instead of excited. This seemed too easy, but Bobby was brash… or maybe just stupid.

“I think with enough friends, we can do anything.” Bobby smiled.

“That’s probably true… wait, do you have some of these friends already, or are you just looking for some?” Daniel asked, and tried not to hold his breath. 

“Both. A man can always use more friends, right? So what do you think, can you get the key?” 

“I don’t know…” It wouldn’t do to look too eager, and it was easy to play it cool. Bobby hadn’t actually told him anything, yet. “Who are these friends you already have? What are their goals?”

“I don’t know if we’re good enough friends for me to tell you that yet, Daniel. Maybe if you find the key, get us some new recruits…” Daniel started shaking his head, hoping he knew the right thing to say. A little flattery would probably work wonders. 

“I couldn’t do that, Bobby. These all seem like good aims, but how do I know? Without knowing who your other friends are? Without knowing their ultimate aims? I may be idealistic - you’re smart to have sussed that out about me - but I’m not naive.” Daniel sat back, and finished his beer. 

“Let me get you another one.” Bobby offered, and went into the kitchen. Daniel ran the conversation around in his head twice before he returned. 

“See, I knew you were a man of morals.” Bobby said, coming back into the room. “That’s why I didn’t want to insult you by offering money. Its probably possible for you to meet another friend or two of mine, but there are risks involved with that. If you ultimately decided not to help… they might not take it well.”

“You sound like someone from a film.” Daniel scoffed, pretty sure that was actually where Bobby was getting his lines from. “If you think this is important though, Bobby, I trust you. Let me meet your friends and see if I can trust them too.”

“Okay, well, I’m supposed to see some of them tomorrow night… does that work?” Daniel answered affirmatively, but further conversation was cut off by a knock at the door. Bobby answered it, and Daniel heard Peggy’s voice float in from the doorway. 

“I’ve just come to fetch my husband!” Peggy said brightly. “We haven’t spent that much time together this week.” Daniel got up as quickly as he could, moving out the entry way. When she say him, Peggy said “Oh, there you are, sweetheart! I’ve got pot roast almost done at home, your favorite!” Pot roast being a code for “I’m in a sticky situation, just play along.” 

“How did you know where we were? Bobby asked Peggy, confused. The plan had been for him to drive Daniel home later. 

“Oh, Claire said something about buying extra beer. I just assumed! Lucky me though, you’re here.” Daniel moved past Peggy to stand in the open doorway behind her. 

“Okay, Peg. Thanks, Bobby. Why don’t you give me a ring tomorrow at work with the final arrangements?” He gave Bobby a meaningful look over Peggy’s head. It was interpreted as he hoped - ‘Not in front of Peggy.’ Bobby nodded. 

“Alright, thanks for picking him up, Peggy. You guys have a good night.”

In the car, Daniel waited in silence for an explanation. Peggy seemed a little flustered, and started taking the most direct route home possible. 

“I’m sorry, Daniel. I may have seen an opportunity this afternoon, and been a bit rash to act on it. I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.”

“What opportunity, Peggy?”

“Susan and I left the meeting at the VA at the exact same time. I swear I didn’t plan it. But she turned left instead of right onto the main street, and I wanted to know what she was up to…”

“You followed her? Without running it by Danvers or thinking it through?” Peggy nodded. “Okay… how’d you end up at Bobby’s?” 

“I think that was where Susan was heading. She was using evasive tactics, but I didn’t think she saw me. And then she pulled a stop-and-see at the end of Bobby’s street. So I had to keep driving. I saw his car was in the drive and the lights were on, so I figured you guys were there. She was still sitting at the end of the street when we left the house. With any luck, she thinks that was what I was doing all along, coming to pick you up.”

“That was awfully risky, Peggy. You should have turned off as soon as she started using evasive maneuvers.” 

“I know. But I think it all worked out.”

“Except you still haven’t baked a cake for the sale tomorrow!” Daniel said, and Peggy rolled her eyes at this. 

They were both surprised when the smell of vanilla greeted them at the house. Danvers was pulling the very cake out of the oven. The kitchen was tidy too, no dishes in the sink. Peggy looked at him in bafflement.

“What?” Danvers said. “I can cook, if I have to. And I didn’t want either of you keeping me up all night banging around in the kitchen because your cover has a blasted bake sale tomorrow. Report.”

Daniel had hoped his good news would cancel out Peggy’s rash behavior, but Danvers didn’t seem particularly pleased with either of them.

“So you have no idea where this meeting is or how we can provide you with backup?” Danvers growled. 

“No. Um. I can call tomorrow after I speak to Bobby. And if all else fails, I can just agree to get the information they want, and we can deal with the fallout afterward.”

“That might mean actually having to give them more information, before we can contain the damage. Well, we’ll see what happens - if Bobby calls you tomorrow. And Peggy, you had better get yourself a different car the next time you go tailing someone who knows you. Make sure you have a hat and sunglasses too, and an extra cardigan in a different color.”

“Yes… sir.” she said, sounding faintly surprised.

“It’s very strange they were both using evasive maneuvers while driving today.” Danvers said. “I would say they are just having an affair and trying to make it seem more exciting, except that Bobby does seem to be wrapped up in something. Let’s hope it’s with the people we’re looking for and not some half-baked scheme of his own.”


	8. Makes a bake sale look fun

Unlike the previous two days, Thursday seemed to last forever. Bobby finally called him just before noon, telling him he would pick him up for the meeting at the end of the work day again. 

“Wouldn’t it be easier if I just met you somewhere?” Daniel asked.

“No, I don’t think so. But it’s not too late to back out, if you’re having second thoughts.” 

Danvers didn’t like it, but Daniel agreed to have Bobby pick him up. Peggy liked it even less, when she ducked out of the beginning of the bake sale to catch him just before he left. They ended up having a tense, whispered argument made very awkward by Dr. Patone coming out of his office. They didn’t have that much time to argue about it though, and Peggy grudgingly agreed to return to the bake sale. 

In the car, Bobby made him put a bag over his head. Daniel was flabbergasted by this, but he complied, and used his training to count the minutes and keep track of turns. Speed was hard to judge but Bobby wasn’t very good at this, taking too many turns to frequently. In Daniel’s mind their path looked like a corkscrew moving vaguely southwest. 

He had to wear the bag as Bobby led him from the car into a building that smelled vaguely of dust and mice. He was sat in a chair before the bag came off his head, revealing a non-descript and mostly empty warehouse. He had to wonder why bad things always went down in warehouses. This wasn’t a nice, obviously in-use warehouse like the one he and Peggy tried to rescue Thompson from. Bobby pulled over another chair from a nearby table and sat down. Daniel raised an eyebrow at him.

“I’m not sure exactly when they will be here.” Bobby said. “Usually I get here when they tell me and I have to wait awhile.” They made small talk for a bit, but that petered out after a bit. Daniel watched dusk gather in the high windows. Finally, when they had been there almost an hour, the sound of car came from outside. 

When Susan came in, Daniel thought he better act surprised. “Is the bake sale over already?” he asked. Inwardly he groaned at that conversational gambit. The mundane details necessary for holding a cover were a plague when trying to think quickly. Susan smirked at him as she walked over to where they were sitting. 

“I left early, actually. I appreciate you giving me an excuse to leave that insipid event... Agent Sousa.” She was on top of him before he could react, lashing out with a strike straight to his temple. Everything went black. 

When he came to, there were irritated voices, his head was throbbing and it was dark. He carefully moved his jaw just a little, feeling fabric rub against his lips. The damn bag over his head again. He was still sitting in the chair, arms behind his back, and he could feel rope holding his wrists together. He remained limp to avoid giving away that he was conscious, and listened.

“But why are we waiting?” Bobby was whining. “I can probably beat what you want out of him.” 

“Bobby dear, you trying to act on your own is why we’re in this mess. They’re pretty upset with us. So we’re just going to do what we’re told this time.” 

“You were the one who thought Daniel would be helpful.” Bobby sulked. 

“Yes. But when I asked you in on this, it was after much longer than a few weeks. And after much more than two conversations, wasn’t it?”

“After I paid for a lot of dates to the supper club, Susan. After a lot of flirting and not much action. I don’t think that would have worked on a guy like this, married to such a dish.”

“It might have, considering they aren’t really married.” Susan said frustratedly. “Peggy’s an agent too. Since they are undercover, he’s probably pretty hard up.” 

“I can’t believe you.” Bobby said. “How many guys have you done this to, anyway? That other agent, the one you killed. Matthew, who you married because you thought his rank provided opportunities. Then he took that honorable discharge. You ever actually have this work out like you planned?”

“Well, you’re still here, even if you’re so jealous you can hardly stand yourself. That must mean you still share our goals, if not my personal motivation. It’s hardly my fault if the best way to get a man to pay attention to your ideas is to give him some of his own. ” 

“That’s - I - that’s not, fair, Susan.” Bobby was back to whining again. “I have more than ideas, and goals. I have feelings for you. It makes me crazy to think of you lying next to that spineless yes-man every night.”

“It’s no worse than how I feel having to live there, I promise you. But there’s no fault I can prove to divorce him. If I give him real fault to divorce me, it will attract unwanted attention. You know how people talk. And you know that would compromise our mission, which mean it would all have been for nothing. We’ll have to see if the cold shoulder drives him off, no matter how long it might take. I told you when you signed on that spycraft was much more dull than it seemed. If you want to walk, there’s the door. ”

“You’d probably shoot me in the back as I went.” Bobby muttered. “Already going to have one body to clean up, what’s another? No, I still want to help. I want to show G-men like this asshole that they can’t just use people…”

They fell silent then, and as little as that conversation revealed, Daniel missed it when they stopped talking. He wondered what they were waiting for - another person? Without their voices to concentrate on, there was nothing to do but feel his head pound, the ache in his neck grow, and the muscles in his back and arms tighten up. But even focusing on the agony was better than pondering what was going to come next. Or worse, wondering what would happen if they found Peggy. Peggy. Peggy was out there somewhere, and she’d would have started looking for him immediately when he didn’t return from this meeting. He didn’t know if even she could find them, but his disappearance gave the SSR something more solid than a list of possible suspects. Maybe they could get a warrant to search Bobby’s house… if anyone could do it, it would be Peggy. 

He focused on that. Peggy would always be on his side. Peggy, who folded his laundry so carefully but wasn’t afraid to knock the wind out of him during their sparring matches. Peggy, who always smelled so good, and laughed with her whole body, throwing her head back… Daniel dozed, despite the pain. He woke when another car pulled up outside the warehouse.


	9. Interrogation is an art with few masters

It took a few minutes but eventually they took the bag off his head. Sitting across the table from him was a familiar face, but it took him a moment to place it.

“Agent Messner, I wish I could say it was nice to see you. Did you have a nice drive up from D.C.?”

“Let’s not bother with the small talk, Agent Sousa. Where can we find Peggy Carter?”

“Peggy? I don’t know, why do you want to know?” The man across the table smiled at him grimly. Standing behind Messner, Bobby was beginning to tense. 

“Sousa. This is no time to play games. I’ve been to your house, since Daniel Winter’s address was listed with the VA. It’s clear you’ve been living there with a woman, whom Susan has identified as Agent Carter. It’s also clear that another man has been living there. Your handler, I presume. I want to know his identity, and I want to know where I can find both of them.” If neither Peggy or Danvers were at the house when Messner had been there recently, they must be looking for him. He started to hope, just a little. 

“I don’t know, Messner. I was outside when Carter took you and your entire team down inside that automat. It only took a few minutes. She’s a hard target and that wasn’t too long ago, are you sure you’re ready for a rematch?” Daniel couldn’t help his smirk, remembering the day Peggy escaped from an entire team of SSR agents. Messner’s face flushed red. 

“More than ready, Sousa. Tell me what I want to know.” Daniel shook his head and let his eyes roam around the room. Susan was standing a couple paces to his left, the bag still in her hand. He had his back to the door. Bobby looked angry behind Messner. Daniel stretched a little, rolling his shoulders back and testing the bonds at his wrists. He wasn’t tied to the chair, which was good. His crutch was nowhere in sight, which was bad. He couldn’t move very quickly without it, which they probably knew. It was why they hadn’t tied him to the chair. At this point Messner was getting impatient, and repeated himself. Daniel looked back at him, amused. 

“Messner. You’re an SSR agent. Even if you had a hard time capturing Peggy, you must be pretty sneaky if you’ve been a double agent for any length of time. You must know this isn’t a very efficient way to run an interrogation. You have no leverage to make me talk.” At this, Bobby came around Messner and backhanded him, hard, across the jaw. Daniel saw it coming and moved with the strike, but it still hurt, and split his lip against his teeth. 

“Bobby, stand down!” Susan yelled, moving to drag him away from where he loomed over Daniel. 

“Yes, Bobby.” said Messner, standing and coming around the side of the table. He leaned against it, close to Daniel but not quite in arm’s reach. “A few slaps aren’t going to intimidate Agent Sousa. Maybe we’ll just leave him here. He’s already been sitting in that chair awhile. Maybe we’ll secure him, and leave him here. Let him get really thirsty. Hungry. Then see if he feels like talking.”

“Do it.” Daniel said. “If you think you have that much time to waste. I’ll just be here, enjoying the peace and quiet.” He licked his lip, tasting blood, and spit on the floor. 

“Why wouldn’t we have enough time? Do you really think Agent Carter knows enough to find us here?”

“I’m not an amateur, Messner. I’m not going to start telling you what we do or do not know. You know if I made it this far, there are weaknesses to exploit.” Daniel let his eyes rest on Bobby, who moved as if to strike him again.

“That will be quite enough, Mr. Wade.” Messner said firmly, holding out his arm to stop Bobby. “Perhaps we can help Daniel get thirsty a little faster. Susan, do you have that knife?” She did, a KA-BAR military issue that she drew out of a sheath under her skirt. 

“Yeah, bleeding me might work.” Daniel said, his heart starting to pound. Stalling them wasn’t working as well as he might have hoped. “If you manage to do it slow. Still, it could be awhile before I get dizzy enough for it to make a difference. Or, you might hit something wrong and I’ll bleed out and be dead before you can get anything out of me. That would be unfortunate.”

“Maybe we’ll set you to bleed real slow, and then leave you to the rats for the night. I bet there’s enough hungry ones here to make you cooperate, even if we only come back in a couple hours.” Daniel tried not to shudder at that. He wasn’t afraid of pain, not really, but left overnight, awake… he took a deep breath, and tried to smile. He was sure it was ghastly.

“You’re not even going to try to turn me, Messner? Sloppy. You should know you catch more flies with honey. How do you know I wouldn’t throw over if you asked for something other than Peggy? No, instead you go straight for torture. Not very imaginative.”

“Daniel Antonio Sousa. Am I really supposed to believe that a fine, upstanding SSR agent like you would turn double agent, just because I asked?”

“Maybe. I thought that was part of the plan here, recruit people to work against Uncle Sam. And it worked on you, how?” 

“You wouldn’t understand, Sousa. After all, your family is safe at home. Most of them, anyway.” Daniel really wasn’t sure what that was about, but it was interesting. And scary. He didn’t like thinking that someone dirty like Messner knew anything about his family. But then, Messner was from D.C. He probably had access to far more information than he should.

He hadn’t done enough to control his reaction to that, and Messner caught it. “Oh, ho, there we go. Maybe you’d give up your precious Peggy to save that baby sister of yours. Maria, is it?” Yeah, that was not good. 

“Or maybe we could just trade?” Daniel asked. 

“What be the point of a trade, Agent Sousa? You’ve probably already deduced we’re not going to let you walk out of here.” 

“It would make me feel better, that’s the point. That’s the purpose of interrogation, you moron. To motivate your subject with the minimum of fuss, or mess. It doesn’t matter if the motivation seems irrational to you. I won’t give you anything on Peggy, it doesn’t matter what you threaten. But there are probably other things I could tell you about our investigation.”

“Now that I know about this operation, I can go back to the SSR and read your field reports at my leisure. Once you and your team are dead, I’ll have all the time in the world to deal with whatever you might have found. But depending on what you might want to know, I might feel generous enough to answer.”

“Okay.” Daniel licked his lips. It was was time to make an educated guess. “Exactly who is trying to get more information regarding the nuclear program? I’d say it was the Soviet Union, but who knows. Could be Yugoslavia.” His guess must have hit the mark, because Messner’s jaw tightened, and his next question came through clenched teeth.

“Who said anything about the nuclear program?” Daniel just smirked. Messner turned his head slowly, to look at Bobby. 

“I didn’t say that exactly-” Bobby started to whine, again. Messner cut him short by drawing a gun from his shoulder holster and shooting him in the chest, three times in rapid succession.


	10. Conflict and resolution

Before Bobby could slide boneless to the floor, Daniel heard familiar, quick footsteps outside the warehouse door. Moving fast, he rose, stepped over to Messner and brought his elbow down on the man’s right wrist. His strike was hard enough to make the gun drop, and Daniel shoved it out of reach under the table with his prosthetic foot. Susan ran toward the door with her knife… where Peggy was entering the warehouse. He didn’t get to see what happened next as Messner grabbed his shoulders and pushed while hooking a foot behind the heel on Daniel’s good leg. He went down, landing hard on his butt. This was a move Peggy constantly used against him in their sparring matches, so he rolled with the momentum and managed to come up on his knees in time to see Messner charging Peggy. Behind them, Danvers was securing a struggling Susan. 

Daniel flexed his wrists against his bonds, unable to help Peggy with his arms still tied behind his back. Messner threw a punch at Peggy’s face, but from Daniel’s vantage point he had seen her shift her weight. She pivoted to the left, Messner’s fist going right past her head. He got his hand tangled in her hair though, pulling her head back towards his chest. She had continued to turn, though, and she got her arms behind him, and used her right elbow to lash a vicious strike at his kidney. He winced, letting go but turning around to face her, arms up like a boxer. Peggy had already turned back toward him, and was backing up a couple paces, toward where Daniel was kneeling on the floor.

“Pulling my hair, Agent Messner? Which of us is the girl, exactly?” Her taunt had its intended effect, and he charged her again. He anticipated her pivot this time and Peggy had to bring up her left forearm, Messner’s sloppy punch glancing off of it instead of her face. That let her get inside his reach and Daniel saw her right hand strike Messner right in the throat. He made a choking sound as Peggy grabbed his right wrist and neatly twisted his arm, spinning him around to pin it to his back. He fell to his knees, still choking. 

“Surrender, Messner.” she said. “Put your face on the floor.” Instead of obeying her command, he threw everything he had into one last struggle, twisting his body around to try and grab at her with his left hand. Peggy took her left hand and clapped it, cupped, over the man’s ear. He cried out in pain and slumped to the floor. Daniel could just see the man’s head past Peggy, and a little blood trickled from his ear. 

The fight went out of Susan then, and Danvers threw a spare pair of handcuffs to Peggy, who clapped them on the unconscious Messner. Then she went over and picked up Susan’s knife and used it to remove the bonds around Daniel’s wrists. She tossed the rope to Danvers, who used it to tie Susan’s feet together. When Daniel had slowly released his arms, stiff from hours of captivity, she helped him get to his feet. 

“That was pretty brutal, Peggy. I’m glad you haven’t used any of those dirty tricks on me.”

“Dirty tricks for dirty agents.” she sniffed, looking at Messner on the floor.” She turned back to Daniel. “I followed Susan from the bake sale. Once I knew the location, I called Danvers. We’ve been outside since before he showed up. I thought I was angry when I saw who it was, but then we had to wait, to see if he would reveal anything. I had to listen to him threaten to torture you.” Her face took on a fierce look he had seen once before, when she had been handcuffed in an interrogation room and Thompson had threatened her. “And that was before he pulled my hair. If we didn’t need him for information, I might have killed him.” Daniel wasn’t sure what to do with that, so he went for his normal teasing.

“Well, you telegraphed your dodge by shifting your weight.” he told her. “I wouldn’t have fallen for such a thing.” She snorted at this, and then let out a little half sob of relief, and suddenly she was hugging him fiercely. Daniel had to lean into her to avoid losing his balance. He shook a little, in relief and excitement both.

Danvers cleared his throat, and they drew apart. It was near dawn but they still had to wait several hours for Thompson to arrive with a relief team from NYC to deal with the prisoners. There was no way Danvers would call in the police and chance losing an SSR mole in city or state bureaucracy. So they waited for backup, watching the dawn brighten the windows in the warehouse.

By early evening, Daniel was on a train to DC with Danvers, the prisoners, and a small entourage of SSR agents to escort them all. Peggy stayed back with Thompson to break the news to Claire and Matthew, and use a little good cop/bad cop on them. Daniel was sure splitting them up was Danvers’ decision, the man’s sense of propriety wanting to separate them before adrenaline and success made them do something rash. It ended up being a waste of time for Peggy, as their hunches had been correct. Both Claire and Matthew were stunned by their spouses’ involvement. 

Daniel had plenty of work to do in DC, writing the report and waiting for Messner to crack. It took a few days before he was even up to being questioned - Peggy had ruptured his ear drum. 

Eventually, he told them everything. He had been contacted by communist Yugoslavian agents who implied they had killed his father (the late Mr. Messner’s official cause of death was heart attack). They threatened to kill his brother as well. He had given them information on three missions, one of which had been severely compromised, and at least a dozen scientific investigations. He bribed two foreign diplomats while impersonating a representative of the United States. And he killed Bobby. He was going away for a long time.

Daniel was in the room as Messner wrote out the last of his confession, and as defeated as the man was, he still felt the need to get in a parting shot.

“Tell Peggy I said hello,” he drawled. “If she gets tired of cleaning up after your crip ass, she’ll know where to visit me.” Daniel smirked, knowing the man was trying to get a rise out of him.

“I’m so glad I caught the rematch, Messner. It was fun watching Peggy beat the crap out of you, but I doubt we’ll be desperate enough for entertainment that she obliges you a third time.” That was the last he saw of the man.

Susan turned out to be a harder nut to crack. Messner reported that as far as he knew, she had been trained in Yugoslavia during the war and placed to get close to an officer just like Matthew. Daniel spent the next two weeks in a borrowed cubicle getting the paperwork in order, and at the end of it, she still hadn’t said anything at all. Finally he got on a train and headed for home. To his surprise, Peggy met him at the train station to drive him home in a car clearly borrowed from Howard Stark. 

“Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis were kind enough to help me air out your apartment and restock your fridge.” she said. “I hope you don’t mind.” It should have seemed weird that Peggy went into his apartment without him, but after living with her for weeks, it didn’t.

“Wow, that’s so thoughtful.” Daniel said. “Thank you. But how did you get in?” Peggy side-eyed him from the driver’s seat.

“I picked the lock.” she said, and Daniel laughed. She insisted on helping him get his luggage up to the apartment, but as he got the door open (with his keys, like a normal person) he saw her wince a little. He took the bags from her hands and set them down.

“How is that arm?” he asked, concerned. Peggy sighed and pulled up her sleeve. Setting aside his crutch, he moved in close to her to see it better in the dim light. He slid his left hand underneath her arm, cupping it by the elbow. It had apparently been quite a bruise, because it was still healing, half the forearm fading to red and grey. 

“Hairline fracture of the radius.” she said. “Swelled up like crazy but it was so small I didn’t have to get it casted.” Daniel winced. He ran his right hand very gently up her arm.

“I’m sorry.” he whispered.

“Well, as Danvers so kindly pointed out, it was my fault for baiting him instead of pressing my own attack.” She looked up at him, and smiled. He gave in then, bending his head to kiss her. It started out light and teasing, but that didn’t last. It did stay gentle, and leisurely, like it would go on as long as they had been waiting for it. Eventually Peggy drew away a little. 

“I can’t stay, Daniel.” she whispered. “Angie said she’d have both our heads if I didn’t get you to take me on some proper dates. And if she didn’t get to meet you first.” Daniel laughed. 

“I would like to take you to out.” he said. “And be wearing something a little nicer than a dusty travel suit. But first, Maria’s making lamb on Sunday. Please say you’ll come to dinner.”

**Author's Note:**

> On timing and history:
> 
> This fic takes place in the fall of 1946, several months after the events of Season 1. The "Greek mess" is the Greek Civil war, which the US involved itself with after a speech Truman gave to Congress in March 1947 that came to be known as the Truman Doctrine. All of this falls in a super messy period in history where Soviet Russia starts as a US ally and ends with both countries entrenched in the Cold War. 
> 
> This now references events from S1 of Agent Carter and my own fics (Back at the SSR and The Trouble with Thompson)
> 
> Also thanks to the peggysous LJ group, because I have apparently adopted a certain amount of headcanon from our discussions.


End file.
